Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/99

74 the earth. I know my husband has an eye and an arm for the Indians and the Tories who would harm us, and though he is gone often, and for a week at a time, he comes home when I least expect him and always covered with laurels. If God protects him whom duty calls into danger, so will He those who trust in Him and stand at their post. He would stay out if his family forted." This was the spirit of Catherine Sevier. At one time when attacked by the Tories, who demanded her husband's whereabouts in order to hang him to the highest tree in front of his own house, she replied to the man who stood over her with a drawn pistol: "Shoot! shoot! I am not afraid to die, but remember that while there is a Sevier on the earth my blood will not be unavenged." He did not shoot, and the leader of the band said: "Such a woman is too brave to die." And again when they came to rob her smokehouse and carry off all the meat put aside for her family, she took down the gun which her husband always left her in good order, and said: "The one who takes down a piece of meat is a dead man." Her appearance and manner were so unmistakable that she was left unmolested. She was distinguished for her kindness and liberality to the poor; always gentle and loving, but firm and determined when occasion demanded. The mere motion of her hand was enough for her family and servants to understand that her decision was invincible. Her husband was called upon to serve as the Governor of Tennessee and to a seat in the Congress of the United States. These honors were a great gratification and happiness to her, whose belief and trust in the ability and greatness of her husband never diminished one jot or tittle during his entire life. After his death, in 1815, Mrs. Sevier removed to middle Tennessee, and made her home in a most romantic spot on the side of one of the isolated mountains, and here she resided for years alone save for the attendance of two faithful darky servants. The last few years of her life were